The end of Character.AI.

lmao you were using this garbage?

Generally we, this community, are not upset about usage restrictions on AI. We hate AI. We are glad you can't keep using it.

Why do you refuse to subscribe to your virtual escort? She may die because of you, it's sad.

I seriously can't tell if this is bait, satire or an honest post. Well done

It's... probably for the best that you're done with it. Sending messages to an algorithm designed to provide an illusion of a fictional character isn't healthy, especially if you're using it every day. Take a break and find something more meaningful to do with your time.

For the record, this is happening all over the AI space. Usage limits are tightening significantly, not only for free users but paid plans too. The major players are upping their costs per token, reducing token limits on subscription plans, and increasingly talking about moving all of their customers to paying direct inference costs instead of subscriptions.

This will kill the industry, and they don't have a way out of it. Regular consumers aren't going to pay per token. You think about the people you know or hear stories about, the people who love ChatGPT because it "listens to all their problems" and "gives them real advice." The people who use it as a therapist or ask it what to eat at a restaurant. Now imagine those people having to mentally budget every conversation they have with an LLM. No way. Not a chance.

And business users are looking at their skyrocketing AI bills, with zero meaningful productivity gains on the other side of the balance sheet, and they're calling bullshit. It's doing nothing for them and they're paying outrageous prices for the privilege. And right now those prices are still subsidized.

This has always been the fatal flaw in the entire industry. In the entire concept. They could have survived the hallucinations, the low quality output, the scandals and deaths and AI psychosis, if only the damn thing was cheap to run. But the cost is what will kill them.

@ OP; This will be happening everywhere in the LLM space (see my other comment for why). It's not really Character AI's fault, it just costs too much to run these models, and those costs aren't solvable, not even with scale. The industry as it was only existed because they were essentially giving away a very expensive product. It's like someone gave you a combustion engine car that "doesn't need gas" and it turns out they were just paying a guy to go to your house and top it up every night.

I'm sorry that you're losing access to a creative outlet that you enjoyed. Maybe you can take this as an opportunity to bring that creative energy to other things? If you like roleplaying, there are tonnes of online spaces dedicated to it. Not all RP is people arguing over stats and slaying dragons. Systemless RP like the conversation flows you enjoyed with CAI do exist and plenty of them are anonymous too. If you'd still prefer something you can do in private, maybe try writing? You're already handling one side of the conversation, so why not just pick up the other as well?

You are addicted to this crap, and need to stop, NOW. These characters aren't real and are dangerous for your mental health